Psalms 91

Thanksgiving

Tears filled his eyes as he contemplated my question…”What would you like us to pray about today?”

In July we began a weekly prayer meeting at Hope House. Each Friday a group gathers in the dining hall for an hour to pray for the Hope House. We ask God to be our center, our focus and that we would lift Him up in everything we do, we ask him to bless our home and ministry that he would give up wisdom to raise these boys for His glory and of course we ask him for salvation for our boys and unsaved staff. About a month ago we decided to extend that prayer time to include individual prayer time for the boys.

Their eagerness to receive prayer is amazing. When asked who wants prayer, hands shoot up all over the room. One by one we begin praying. Rodrigo wanted to be first, he wanted to forgive his father. Jonathan Ulesis also felt the need to forgive his father. Some prayed for direction, many prayed for their Moms and family. Christian, Ricardo, and Uriel all accepted Jesus as their Savior.

This week Christian returned for prayer. He stood before me and hesitated when I asked him what he wanted to pray about. I watched as his eyes turned red and began to fill with tears. Being concerned that there was a problem, I asked him if he wanted the other boys to leave in order to have a little privacy. He quickly regained his composure and said, “no”. Then he began, “I want to thank God for bringing me here, for giving me a home and a family, food to eat, a bed to sleep in and clothes to wear.” Honestly, I am not sure what more he said because by this time I too, was crying.

Later that day I was reminded of a time 8 years ago when we were ready to “throw in the towel”. We sat in a budget hotel at the Mexican/American border, three kids, low on money, encouragement and support. Rodney and I seriously discussed our future as missionaries and what life would look like if we just walked away. Fortunately we are both pretty stubborn and we just couldn’t come to terms with one question. “What if?…..” What if we stay? What will God do if we hang in there? And we were haunted with the idea of never knowing the answer to what the future might hold. So we decided to load up our truck and 15-passenger van, the three girls, Zion six-weeks, Trinity two-years old and Genesis four-years old and make the two day drive to Ixtlahuacan de Los Membrillos and see what The Lord had in store for us. It took every ounce of willpower we had that day to cross the Mexican border and return to a dream of a home for abused and abandoned children.

And so today, along with Christian and many more grateful boys, I am thankful! I am thankful for a faithful God who has turned a dream into a reality. I am thankful that we decided to press on that day eight years ago,thankful for the hundreds of boys who have had the opportunity to hear about Jesus, thankful for the 100s who have accepted Jesus in their hearts, thankful for the opportunity and privilege to be a part of these boys lives, thankful for helping to give them a safe home, a family, food, clothes, a bed, an education and medical care and thankful for those of you who help make Hope House a reality. Happy Thanksgiving!